Dear Colleagues,

The built environment has been identified as one of the most significant sectors affecting sustainability. Particularly, the buildings are regarded as substantial components for pursuing decarbonisation and priority is given to the design, construction and operation of new or renovated existing buildings in order to reach zero energy or zero emission levels. Furthermore, in the light of the life cycle approach, concepts such as waste-free building sites as well as re-use and re-cycle of building materials are more often discussed in the relevant fora. Furthermore, special emphasis is placed on the building envelope and the materials that compose it.

Within this framework, this Special Issue of Energies will attempt to study, analyse and evaluate the relationship between building envelope materials and building performance under the sustainability concepts. More specifically, potential topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Building envelope configurations;
• Nature-based and carbon-neutral solutions;
• Passive design strategies and systems;
• Innovative building materials and elements characterized by their cost effectiveness, resource-efficiency, low embodied energy, and potential for re-use;
• Smart envelope systems and dynamic materials;
• Low-emission HVAC and energy production systems,

used for

• minimizing energy needs and advancing building energy performance;
• enhancing environmental performance and contribute to the goal of decarbonisation of building sector;
• assuring comfortable indoor environments in terms of (hygro)thermal, visual and acoustic conditions;
• exploiting and adjusting to local climatic conditions;
• achieving resilience and prolonging service life; as well as
• mitigating and adapting to future climate conditions.

We are looking forward to receiving your contribution to this Special Issue.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Building energy performance
• Zero energy/emission buildings (ZEB) and energy-plus buildings
• Indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
• Building environmental performance
• Life cycle assessment (LCA)
• Sustainable and smart building materials and systems
• Nature based solutions
• Passive design strategies and systems
• Dynamic building materials and elements
• Climate change mitigation